USA - International expedition

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The NBA is as committed as ever to being a global leader Saturday, February 16, 2008By Teddy Kider

Fifteen years from now, there could be an Indian basketball player starting in the NBA All-Star Game, someone who became a star with the help of a conscientious general manager and an innovative head coach, both Italians, who crossed the Atlantic to learn about a league that seemed foreign, yet close to home.

The Indian player could be part of an NBA that has a 7-to-3 ratio of Americans to international players and very few domestically raised big men of the dominant -- and near extinct -- Shaquille O'Neal variety. The new star could have several American friends, maybe one with a talented 16-year-old son who just left to live as a professional basketball player in Europe before a triumphant return home to -- hopefully -- the NBA.

This story of an Indian All-Star might seem far-fetched, something impossible to imagine. But 15 years ago, in the wake of the 1992 Summer Olympics, how many people thought that a then-14-year-old from Germany would soon win the NBA's MVP award, or that a then-12-year-old from China would start in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game?

Although the NBA has been at the relative forefront of efforts to internationalize a U.S.-based professional sports league, its officials and marketing experts admit that the potential for further expansion still is enormous. As NBA fans enjoy watching players like Germany's Dirk Nowitzki and China's Yao Ming, the league is continuing to grow around the world -- to the point where tales of Indian All-Stars and Europe-bound 16-year-olds, even NBA teams based in European cities, could come true.

The search for big men

International players make up about 20 percent of NBA rosters.

The exact number was 74 players on opening day of this season, down from last year's 83, marking the first decrease since the 1999-2000 season.

But Kim Bohuny, the NBA's vice president of basketball operations-international, said the decrease was a sign that "the cycle is just maturing." Players, some more knowledgeable about the league, might stay in Europe longer to develop or pursue more lucrative contracts overseas if their skills are not at the top of the NBA game.

Many familiar with the NBA's international efforts, including Phoenix Suns Chairman Jerry Colangelo, said they could see the proportion of international players in the league reaching beyond 30 percent.

"I hope the American player gets a wake-up call that it's not an easy path," Colangelo said about making the NBA.

While the United States' talent system already is well-developed, the potential for finding elite players is considered enormous in previously untapped countries like China, where the NBA estimates that 300 million people -- roughly the same number of people living in the United States -- play basketball.

Teams will learn to look abroad for specific needs, such as a 7-foot center with the type of perimeter skills that are taught from a young age overseas.

"The domestic output of talented big men is not what it needs to be," said Memphis Grizzlies General Manager Chris Wallace, who added that without international centers, teams would be in trouble.

International players, especially those from Europe, might find themselves with another advantage over Americans besides an early focus on fundamentals: the ability to play professionally from a young age. Hornets forward Peja Stojakovic, now 30 and in his 10th NBA season, signed his first deal when he was 16 years old.

The United States' unique system combines education with athletics, but the European club system avoids limits on practice time with coaches. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said "the future is too bright for international players," partly due to "arcane rules in high school, hypocritical NCAA rules."

"If my kid was the next LeBron James and he was 16," Cuban said, "I'd be like: 'You're going to Europe. You're getting paid $5 million a year, and you'll go to high school there. And we'll just make sure you go to a good high school.' It's ridiculous the way we do it here."

International executives

Maurizio Gherardini, a native Italian, represents another type of cross-Atlantic exchange.

Maurizo joined the Toronto Raptors as vice president/assistant general manager in 2006, after heading the elite Italian team Benetton Treviso.

It was a jump that no European had made, according to the Raptors, one that began to form when he interviewed with the Charlotte Bobcats at the start of that franchise. Gherardini said he had two or three other opportunities to pursue positions in the NBA before being hired by the Raptors.

"I hope there will be somebody else with the same opportunity," Gherardini said.

Even after the success he had in Europe, adjusting to the United States has not been easy. Gherardini has had to learn a new system of basketball with different features, such as a draft and a salary cap.

"Players only have to display technical ability and physical ability," Gherardini said. "At this level, you need good control of the language, an understanding of the system and rules. I'm still in the learning process of understanding how this system goes."

Gianluca Pascucci, an Italian-born international scout for the Houston Rockets, said that Gherardini would be NBA teams' first choice from a pool of European candidates for general manager positions. But Pascucci believes a different kind of leader will make his way from Europe to the NBA soon.

"This is the time to have a coach -- if not a head coach, then a head assistant coach," Pascucci said, naming Ettore Messina, a popular Italian coach who was linked to discussions with the Raptors before Toronto's success last season. "I wouldn't be surprised if it happens in the next couple of years."

Growth continues

While international players, and possibly executives and coaches, begin filtering into the NBA in greater numbers, the league also is expanding its efforts looking outward.

The newest member of the family is NBA China, a business entity that was announced in January.

The NBA has had preliminary talks with the Chinese Basketball Association about creating a league in China, according to an NBA spokesman. And NBA Commissioner David Stern acknowledged Thursday that discussions about creating a division of the NBA in Europe still are alive.

"That's something that we've been discussing for a very long time," Stern said. "There is no immediacy to it. My observation would be that for the first time, we've seen arena developments. Now that we have an arena in London and one to be built in Berlin and arenas on the drawing board in other places, I'd say down the road you can begin to think about a division if you have fan affinity and you have a pricing structure that works."

Other basketball leagues are strengthening, even attracting players -- like former Hornet Arvydas Macijauskas -- who had jumped to the NBA but wanted to return overseas.

"The Euroleague will never be the same level as the NBA, but it's getting closer, to the point where it can lure good players back," Pascucci said.

The NBA's vice president of global marketing partnerships, Emilio Collins, said the NBA is not worried about competition from overseas leagues, but rather focused on working with them.

The next big market could be India, a heavily populated country that the NBA said has been televising its games for 15 years. The Asian component of the NBA's Basketball Without Borders program has turned away from China after several years and is heading to New Delhi this summer, for the league's first event in India.

Collins said it is "a little bit too early to tell" if India could be the NBA's next China in terms of marketing potential, but he said internal groups have traveled there over the past two years to look into the situation.

"One of the greatest challenges is prioritizing the opportunities we have throughout the world," Collins said.

Game stays the same

Marketing aside, the main question for American fans of the NBA is simple: How will this global exchange affect the game played in the United States?

The NBA already has the 7-footers who can shoot long-range jumpers, and coaches like the Phoenix Suns' Mike D'Antoni, who coached in Italy under Gherardini, bring fascinating ideas and styles. The basic rules of the NBA, however, do not seem to be changing as quickly as the demographics of the league.

"We like our identity, and we like the rules we have in place," Milwaukee Bucks General Manager Larry Harris said.

The president of FIBA, Bob Elphinston, said after meeting with the NBA in December that he encouraged the league to change its court size to reflect international standards and believed the NBA would consider it. He also said there have been discussions about extending the international 3-point line.

"No matter where you're playing football in all of the world," Elphinston said, referring to soccer, "the pitch is the same length and the same width."

But NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league has no rule changes related to the international game under serious consideration.

At least for now, no matter what changes the NBA endures in global growth and international makeup, the rules of the game the simple elements that provide the foundation for all of the entertainment figure to remain the same.

And even for some of the players who might have learned with different rules, that sounds just fine.

"The marketing and globalization of basketball doesn't have anything to do with court size," Stojakovic said. "Just leave basketball the way it is -- pure."